Mercy is kindly received.

fuller interceding for her, by knocking at the gate herself. And she knocked then so loud that she made Christiana start. Then said the keeper of the gate, Who is there? And Christiana said, It is my friend.

So he opened the gate and looked out, but Mercy was fallen down without in a swoon; for she fainted, and was afraid that no gate should be opened to her.

Jonah 2. 7.

Then he took her by the hand, and said, Damsel, I bid thee arise. Oh, sir, said she, I am faint: there is scarce life left in me. But he answered, that one once said, "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple." Fear not, but stand upon thy feet, and tell me wherefore thou art come.

MER. I am come for that unto which I was never invited, as my friend Christiana was. Hers was from the King, and mine was but from her. Wherefore I fear I presume.

GOOD. Did she desire thee to come with her to this place?

MER. Yes; and, as my Lord sees, I am come; and, if there is any grace and forgiveness of sins to spare, I beseech that thy poor handmaid may be a partaker thereof.

Then he took her again by the hand, and led her gently in, and said, I pray for all them that believe on me, by what means soever they come unto me. Then said he to those that stood by, Fetch something, and give it Mercy to smell on, thereby to stay her faintings. So they fetched her a bundle of myrrh, and a and a Song of Sol. 1. 13. while after she was revived.

Then

And now were Christiana, and her boys, and Mercy received of the Lord at the head of the way, and spoke kindly unto by him. said they yet further unto him, We are sorry for our sins, and beg of our Lord his pardon, and further information what we must do.

in that power of intercessory prayer which God our Father vouchsafes to grant to the members of his great family. (James v. 16.) Knocking at the gate herself.—Intercessory prayer is, no doubt, very helpful to the Christian; but we have not attained to the full power of prayer until we have taken that potent weapon into our own hands, and therewith knocked for ourselves at the door of grace. Thus it was with MERCY; weary of waiting, and anxious for admittance, she appeals, on her own account, by loud and re

peated knocks, until the porter openeth to her also. And then-oh, what a sight! Behold a prostrate Pilgrim, the victim of her own doubts and fears, alarmed by her own loud call and clafm upon the attention of the Master-fainting by the door of the Wicketgate, which her own knock had opened! Oh, what strength is in the feeblest hand, what might in the weakest prayer, what life and future growth in the tiny seed of faith, though it be no greater than the grain of mustardseed! Surely, for some of the weak-hearted

I

grant pardon, said he, by word and deed; by word, in the promise of forgiveness; by deed, in the way I obtained it. Take the first from my lips with a kiss, and the other, as it shall be revealed.

Song of Sol. 1. 2;
John 20. 19.

Now I saw in my dream that he spake many good words unto them, whereby they were greatly gladdened. He also had them up to the top of the gate, and showed them by what deed they were saved; and told them withal, that that sight they would have again as they went along the way, to their comfort.

So he left them awhile in a summer-parlour below, where they entered into a talk by themselves; and thus Christiana began— O Lord, how glad am I that we are got in hitler!

MER. SO you well may: but I of all have cause to leap for joy.

Matt. 24. 41.

CHR. I thought one time as I stood at the gate, because I had knocked and none did answer, that all our labour had been lost; especially when that ugly cur made such a heavy barking against us. MER. But my worst fear was, after I saw that you was taken into his favour, and that I was left behind. Now, thought I, it is fulfilled which is written, "Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the other left." I had much ado to forbear crying out, Undone! and afraid I was to knock any more: but, when I looked up to what was written over the gate, I also thought that I must either knock again or die so I knocked, but I cannot tell how; for my spirit now struggled between life and death.

Part 1., p. 30.

I took courage.

:

Matt. 11. 12.

CHR. Can you not tell how you knocked? I am sure your knocks were so earnest that the very sound of them made me start. I thought I never heard such knocking in all my life: I thought you would come in by a violent hand, or take the kingdom by storm. MER. Alas, to be in my case! who that so was could but have done so? You saw that the door was shut upon me, and that there was a most cruel dog thereabout. Who, I say, that was so faint-hearted as I, would not have knocked with all their might? But pray, what said my Lord to my rudeness? Was he not angry with me?

and feeble-minded of the flock is this delineation given. It is to such conscious weakness as this that Divine strength is vouchsafed. These fainting ones are revived and refreshed by the sweet-smelling myrrh and spices of the Spirit. "Thy comforts refresh my soul !"

Pardon by word and deed.-First, by the good promise of God, and then by the effectual work of Christ. We receive pardon, first by the assurance of the promise, and then by the sight of the Cross, and the spiritual view of the Crucified.

judgments:" wherefore dost thou keep so cruel a dog in thy yard, at the sight of which such women and children as we are ready to fly from the gate for fear?

Part 1.. p. 31.

He answered and said, That dog has another owner; he also is kept close in another man's ground, only my pilgrims hear his barking: he belongs to the castle which you see there at a distance, but can come up to the walls of this place. He has frighted many an honest pilgrim from worse to better, by the great voice of his roaring. Indeed, he that owneth him doth not keep him out of any good-will to me or mine, but with intent to keep the pilgrims from coming to me, and that they may be afraid to come and knock at this gate for entrance. Sometimes also he has broken out, and has worried some that I loved; but I take all at present patiently. I also give my pilgrims timely help, so that they are not delivered to his power, to do with them what his doggish nature would prompt him to. But what! my purchased one, I trow, hadst thou known never so much beforehand, thou wouldest not have been afraid of a dog. The beggars that go from door to door will, rather than lose a supposed alms, run the hazard of the bawling, barking, and biting too, of a dog: and shall a dog, a dog in another man's yard, a dog whose barking I turn to the profit of pilgrims, keep any one from coming to me? I deliver them from the lions, and "my darling from the power of the dog."

Ps. 20. 20, 21.

Then said Mercy, I confess my ignorance: I spake what I understood not: I acknowledge that thou dost all things well.

Then Christiana began to talk of their journey, and to inquire after the way. So he fed them, and washed their feet, and "set them in the way of his steps," according as he had dealt with her husband before.

So I saw in my dream, that they walked on their way; and had the weather very comfortable to them.

the road is pleasant; their lines have fallen unto them in a fair place. The relief is great, the promise of pardon is sure, and has already ensured to them the realisation of the peace that pardon brings. They now sing the songs of their pilgrimage; and from this fair beginning they are enabled to anticipate what shall be the end of their journey.

The dog.-The existence of danger so near to the Wicket-gate is a mystery to the mind of MERCY. The difficulty, however, is solved, when she is informed that the dog is Satan's property, kept there, close by the entrancegate, to deter those that would go in thereat. And he would indeed deter them, but that a stronger than he delivers His servants from such fears and alarms of the pilgrimage. Yet, not altogether without danger is this The weather was comfortable.-This part of path of the Wicket-gate. The trees of the

The Children eat the Enemy's Fruit.

Then Christiana began to sing, saying

Bless'd be the day that I began

A pilgrim for to be;

And blessed also be that man
That thereto moved me.

'Tis true, 'twas long ere I began
To seek to live for ever;
But now I run fast as I can :

'Tis better late than never.

Our tears to joy, our fears to faith,

Are turned, as we see :

That our beginning (as one saith)
Shows what our end will be.

Now there was on the other side of the wall that fenced in the way up which Christiana and her companions were to go, a garden, and that garden belonged to him whose was that barking dog of whom mention was made before. And some of the fruit trees that grew in that garden shot their branches over the wall; and being mellow, they that found them did gather them up and eat of them to their hurt. So Christiana's boys (as boys are apt to do), being pleased with the trees, and with the fruit that hung thereon, did pluck them, and began to eat. Their mother did also chide them for so doing, but still the boys went on.

Well, said she, my sons, you transgress, for that fruit is none of ours but she did not know that it belonged to the enemy : I'll warrant you, if she had, she would have been ready to die for fear. But that passed, and they went on their way. Now, by that they were gone about two bow-shots from the place that led them into the way, they espied two very ill-favoured ones coming down apace to meet them. With that Christiana and Mercy her friend covered themselves

adjoining garden shot their branches over the wall of the narrow way, and presented their mellow and luscious fruits full in view of CHRISTIANA'S children. This was their temptation; and they plucked them, and did eat.

CHRISTIANA'S conscience is somewhat troubled by her children's conduct, and she reproves them, on the score that these fruits did not belong to them. Had the good woman known more, had she traced those fruits to the root that bore them, her voice had been lifted up more loud and more commanding, that her children should straightway forbear to eat. These fruits were in the narrow-way, but they

formed no part of the King's possessions; the root of that tree grew in the garden of the Tempter, who threw these tempting baits over the very walls of salvation. These are the seductive pleasures and gaieties of life, those "youthful lusts" which war against the soul.

Two very ill-favoured ones. - This danger tests the elder Pilgrims. Alone upon the highway, their virtue and innocence are assailed by those who would plunge them into sin and shame, and so recover them to the power of Satan. But virtue, though unprotected, is her own best protector. She first drops the veil of modesty over her face, and